Wooden Lantern Tutorial

It’s been a while since I posted any do it yourself projects. It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything of the sort, it’s just finding the time to share is a little hard right now.

Earlier this year I was asked to be a vendor at an upcoming vintage fair and first I thought with all the parties I have scheduled, there’s no way I can manage that, but of course, as I thought it through I couldn’t resist!

So for the past few weeks I have been spending a lot of time out in the shop. (one of my favorite places to be!)

I am really excited for this!…

 

I have never done anything like this but I know it will be right up my alley! The only thing that bothers me is I wish I would have more time to prepare for it. It’s not that I didn’t know about it in advance, I’ve just been too busy with other things this spring to work on making things for the fair. Oh well, at least I’ll get to be there and meet others with the same interests.

Now, for the subject at hand… I’ve always wanted to make a wooden lantern.. sort of like the kind you see in Pottery Barn or such places.

I started out with a square of wood…

 

and four 2x2 posts…

 

 

This is all scrap wood as you can tell...nothing fancy!

I made several different sizes.

Next I glued and pinned the posts to the base…

 

 

 

 

I measured in between the posts and put in a thin, approximately quarter inch piece..

 

 

 

 

I thought it gave the base a nicer, finished look with the extra wood in between the main posts.

 

 

Next I put 3/4 inch thick wood in between the posts for the top part. If I had it to do over again, I would have used two inch, the same as the posts, since I put a netting in the inside, I ended up adding a piece of wood to hold that. This probably doesn’t make sense now, but after you see the finished product it will.

 

 

The next steps are puttying, sanding and painting.

After that, I got some chicken fence at Ormes hardware and stapled that along the inside.

Last, I added a rope handle.

And here’s how it turned out.. not quite your Pottery Barn grade but serves the same purpose!

 

 

I think it looks good by itself.. or in a group…

 

 

For the rope ends, I had a hard time finding what I needed. I envisioned a “cap” with a ring attached to clamp on the end, but unfortunately nobody had anything like that around here. I ended up using a chain link and a rope clamp..

 

 

I really want to keep one of these but I won’t allow myself to do that, since I made them for the vintage fair!

 

 

 

Have a great weekend! Next week I will keep posting some of the things I’ll have at the fair Saturday…